Bill Davis' politics were anything but 'bland'

He's been out of public life for a quarter century. But there are people of a certain age who remember well how good The Bill Davis Years were.

Fifty years ago this month, William Grenville Davis won his first election as an MPP in premier Leslie Frost's government. He was just 29.

He would explode on to the Ontario political scene in a major way. But first Davis would experience tragedy in his private life.

Davis lost his first wife to cancer at a time when he should have been celebrating his rising political star.

He had four young children and a broken heart.

But he also had, in premier John Robarts, a friend and mentor who had his eye on Davis. In an almost unprecedented move, Robarts kept the education portfolio for himself for a year to give Davis time to get his private life straightened out.

Eventually, Davis became quite likely the most significant education minister in post-Confederation Ontario history, delivering unprecedented numbers of new schools, universities, and the entire community college system.

When Robarts retired, Davis won a squeaker of a leadership convention and assumed the premiership at age 41.

While insisting he was old for his age and able to handle the transition, the record suggested otherwise. Davis's initial years as premier were beset by mistakes and annoying scandals. Four years later, he barely managed to hang on to a minority.

He tried to restore his majority two years later, claiming he needed a renewed mandate to deal with the looming threat of separation in Quebec. Ontarians weren't buying, and they handed him another minority.

But then Davis' political shrewdness and brilliance kicked in. Unlike Ottawa over the past few years, Davis genuinely liked and respected his opponents. So he would tack to the right on some issues to get rural Liberals onside, and to the left on others to capture NDP support.

In 1981, he won a majority.

While Davis always joked "bland works," his final term in office was punctuated by historic accomplishments.

CATBIRD'S SEAT

Davis was in the catbird's seat when Pierre Trudeau repatriated the Canadian Constitution, with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a story never before told, he admits today he called Trudeau at a key moment in the negotiations, to say Ontario would withdraw its support if Trudeau didn't accept the latest deal.

Trudeau did.

He also gave legitimacy to the Roman Catholic school system by extending full public funds to the end of Grade 13 -- something he had refused to do in 1971 and won an election by doing so. Some friends believe Davis always felt a little guilty winning that election that way. Offering full funding in 1984 was a way of making amends, not to mention making the PC party more popular with Ontario's growing Catholic population.

In 1984 after 25 years in public life, he left office the longest-serving premier of Ontario in the 20th century.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Davis moved to private life, well ensconced in a Bay Street law firm, sitting on more than a dozen boards of directors, working with his favourite charities, and staying influential behind the scenes. He made good money and saw more of his grandchildren than he ever saw of his own kids.

When I interviewed him a year later, in 1986, and suggested this must be the best time of his life, the normally circumlocutious Davis said something I've never forgotten:

"Steven, the most fascinating day in this job as a corporate lawyer, can't touch being Premier of Ontario on the dullest." That one comment sums up what so many people find fascinating about politics. And few have ever done politics better than Ontario's 18th premier, who will celebrate his 80th birthday next month.